Rock, Paper, Scissors
by sweet-virginia-sparks
Summary: She's ready. He's not. She feels rejected. He feels rushed. Together they must find a way to communicate when a interesting afternoon makes a mess of things. [Zekepay]
1. An Interesting Afternoon

"Cookie?"

A grin spread across Sharpay's face as she reached out to take a single peanut butter swirl cookie from a smiling Zeke. Just seconds before she had bounced down the stairs to answer to the door where she had found her boyfriend greeting her with a plate of Tabby Cats, as Gabriella had so accurately named Zeke's much loved treats.

"You're amazing. Did you know that?" she told him, her eyes wide with anticipation at the still-warm-from-the-oven baked good she held in her hand.

With a sly smirk Zeke stepped closer to the blonde, "Show me."

Bringing the cookie down from where it was about to enter her mouth, she moved onto her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss of Zeke's lips. "Come on in" she whispered turning to shut the door behind him. Zeke followed her into the large kitchen where he placed his green ceramic plate on the Evans' mahogany table and sat down beside, but facing his girlfriend. Taking another bite from her cookie Sharpay swung her legs onto Zeke's lap and he began to run a single finger softly across her shin.

"So where's the rest of your family?"

Sharpay licked a small smear of peanut butter from her finger. "Well Ry is over at Kelsi's working on some English project…" Zeke smiled, it was a well known fact that Ryan and Kelsi had a thing for each other "…and my parents are at a wedding, they won't be home 'til really late."

"So we're here alone?" Zeke raised and eyebrow as Sharpay nodded, it always surprised him how comfortable the Evans parents were with their children having friends, namely girlfriends or boyfriends, over while they were out. But Sharpay just shrugged that off, the twins were responsible and they had each other to keep themselves in check.

Quickly swallowing the first bite of her second cookie Sharpay exclaimed, "Oh I forgot: I have to copy those pictures from last weekend for you. Come on, my computer's upstairs."

Taking her lead again, Zeke brushed a couple of crumbs off his lap and followed Sharpay up the spiral staircase to the second floor. Opening the door with the bright gold star on it, Sharpay sat down on the edge of her bed and opened up a rhinestone embellished laptop. Her manicured fingers typed in her password, sharstar83, and she smiled when she felt Zeke's side pressed against her shoulder and his warm breath on her ear as he watched her load a file of pictures.

"I definitely want a copy of that one!" he exclaimed, pointing to a picture of Sharpay spraying Taylor with whipped cream.

"I'm giving you all of them dork." Sharpay laughed, closing a blank CD into her disk drive.

Five minutes later (after a small incident involving the creation of seventeen copies of each individual picture) Sharpay popped the disk out, placed her laptop on the white wooden nightstand beside her bed, and turned to Zeke. "Here you go." she told him, holding out a plastic CD case labeled "Troy's House 10/3/07"

"Why thank you." he responded, leaning down to kiss her. She smiled into the kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck, his cue to deepen the kiss and pull her into his lap. Feeling his tongue softly touch hers, she slowly pushed him down onto the bed where she moved on top of him, all while holding the kiss. His thumbs ran over the skin above her waist and she felt her breath hitch he began to gently suck on her neck.

"Mmm" she moaned quietly as they rolled over and her graceful hands roamed across his toned chest under the navy polo he had thrown on that morning. Bringing his lips back to her mouth his hands moved higher to hold her tightly under her breasts. As the breathing got heavier and the kisses became more intense Sharpay ran her fingers down Zeke's stomach, sending chills with her dragging nails, and began to undo the silver belt buckle on Zeke's jeans.

Quickly Zeke pulled back, "Shar?"

"I want to Zeke, I'm ready." She told him, her brown eyes looking into his own.

"Shar..." he sighed as he propped himself up above her, "I don't think it's a good idea."

She was beginning to get a bit embarrassed, "Why? I'm ready, really. I want this."

"I know Shar, but I don't."

"What? But why?" she asked with a trace of anger in her voice. She was not finding it amusing being rejected by the boy she loved.

"I'm sorry, I just…I just don't think we're ready. This, well this should be special and I feel like it's too soon."

She broke their gaze and looked at her wall, seeing this he sighed and moved to sit on the edge of her bed, his hands folded in his lap.

"I'm sorry Shar, it just feels rushed. I want us to do it because we're both ready, not because we've got the house to ourselves and it's lucky timing."

With Sharpay's own body on the edge of the bed the noticeable distance between them felt like miles compared to just a few minutes ago. Seeing the silence she kept between them he tried to scoot closer but that only caused her to lean away as she informed him that he should probably leave.

"Shar, come on, we should talk about this."

"Zeke, please don't."

"Fine", was his last word before standing up and walking out without even looking back.

"Grr!" Sharpay grumbled after he had disappeared through the door way She bit a nail of her right hand, nail biting was a habit she only took up when she was confused.

_He doesn't want me._

Small tears, mixtures of frustration, anger and sadness, watered up her eyes as her mind raced with reasons Zeke wouldn't want to take their relationship any father.

_He doesn't think I'm mature enough? Or that he would enjoy it? Well fuck you Zeke!_

**A/N: Hmm, so this was originally a one-shot, but I like the idea of making it longer. It won't be a story, probably more like a multiple-part one shot. I hope you all like it, I'm not totally sure where I'm going with it or how long it will be so feel free to give me ideas and suggestions. As you can tell, I've made Sharpay less "sparkly" I guess you could say. I like to think that Zeke and the rest of the group made her a bit less of a drama queen :) Let me know if you feel like it was short, my "chapters" are usually about three pages which is pretty short compared to most, I think it's because I usually write them in one sitting, so I'm gonna try to make them longer. Anyway, what did you think of Sharpay's reaction at the end? Realistic?**

**Give me a shout-out ♥**

**xoxoxo**

**Sparks**

**PS. I'm having trouble with the rules of writing dialogue, like when to break the line or where to add the period. So anyone who's got it figured out, can you let me know? I'd love to learn how to properly write dialogue, you know, since I'm only in high school!**


	2. The Only Reason?

Sharpay rolled over in bed for the hundredth time that night, her blonde curls splayed over her numerous silk pillows. She had been tossing and turning since she had gotten into bed. The afternoon's events played over and over in her mind, more humiliating each time she heard it, saw it, _relived it_. Finally she sat up in bed, her arms flopping down onto the pink duvet with an "umph". The blue glowing letters of her iHome brought another groan when she saw it had been two hours, two long hours since she'd gotten into bed and tried to sleep away the anger. She had been unsuccessful, completely unsuccessful. Instead, lying in bed only gave her more opportunity to think about it, analyzing every little detail. She thought it was right, so why didn't he?

The blonde grumpily pulled off her covers and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Pausing to run a hand through her curls, her shoulders slumped as she stood up letting her feet hit the soft, plush carpet. Sharpay had no idea what she was doing, but lying in bed was only making her feel worse and she had become restless. It didn't help having to sleep in the place where the humiliation had happened, like there were traces of it burned into the bed.

She slowly made her way to door, but as her hand reached for the doorknob she slowly pulled it back. Knowing what hung beside her, her eyes had caught on one of the many pictures tacked onto her pink, feather embellished bulletin board. In the bottom left-hand corner, tucked beside a playbill and a dried rose, was a picture of Zeke. Sharpay had found it in his room one day and insisted on keeping it. He had laughed and told her that if she wanted it she was free to take it. She loved that picture; he was standing on the gym court at the three-point arc, as he had explained to her, about to take a shot. He looked so focused and professional, and not to mention, extremely hot as Sharpay had informed him.

She ran a perfectly manicured finger across his face on the sleek surface of the photograph. Then retracting her hand she pressed her palms against her watering eyes, in attempt to stop the tears. Pulling open her door, rather loudly too, she scuffled down the hallway and then down the spiral stairs. When she reached the spotless kitchen she pulled open the stainless steel refrigerator and stood staring at its contents. Nothing appealed to her, food only made her think of Zeke. Especially the remaining Tabby Cats that were so innocently sitting on the counter, watching her.

"Shar?" a voice came into the kitchen and Sharpay looked around to find her brother.

"Hey Ryan." She responded as she closed the fridge.

"What are you doing down here?" Ryan yawned and rubbed a hand down his face.

Sharpay shrugged, she didn't really have an answer for him. She was down there because she didn't want to be upstairs and laying in bed was driving her crazy.

"Did I wake you?" she asked.

"You walk loud." He informed her blatantly. It was a privilege of being her brother that he could tell her when she was being obnoxious, and she never failed to the do the same to him.

"Sorry," she mumbled, "but you're a light sleeper."

"Yeah, but geez, you didn't have to stomp."

"I wasn't stomping!" she shot back at him.

"Sorry, sorry." he held his hand up in defense at her outburst.

She didn't reply, her eyes were fixed on the ground.

"You okay?" he asked her.

She shrugged her shoulders, not yet knowing if she wanted to talk about it, especially since it was her brother.

"Well what's wrong?"

"I dunno, just Zeke and stuff." While she was good at complaining, Sharpay was not very good at discussing the things bothering her. The experience was embarrassing enough, but talking about it, _with her brother_, was even worse.

"What happened?" Ryan asked pouring himself a glass of white grape juice. He figured that since he was in the kitchen, and it didn't seem like he was about to leave, he might as well take advantage of the gigantic, well stocked refrigerator.

"He's just being weird." Sharpay sighed and stopped herself from almost biting a nail.

After taking a gulp from his glass, Ryan set it on the table and asked, "What about?"

"Me." Sharpay frowned.

"Like he's not talking to you?"

"No, he's just…" Sharpay looked over at brother, debating whether or not to tell him. They were close, extremely close, but this was also more personal than most other things they shared. Finally she decided that she might as well, Gabriella was always telling her that it felt better to talk about things rather than keep them inside. It was scientifically proven, she had said, that it could make you sick to keep your fears inside.

"He was over today and we went upstairs so I could give him the pictures from last weekend and then we kinda started to, well, _you know_" Ryan nodded, he did know "but then he got all weird and was like 'I don't think we should we do this' even though I told him I wanted too."

"You mean, he didn't think you should do…_it_?"

Hiding her face behind her hands Sharpay nodded.

"Wow." Ryan paused for a second. "Well, um, I don't know what to say Shar. Did you really want to do it? Maybe he thought you were just saying that."

"No, I really did! He was the one who kept saying that we shouldn't."

"Why?"

"I don't know!" She through her hands out and groaned, and then more quietly she added, "I don't know."

"I'm sorry Shar. I have no idea, I mean... I don't know. I'm sorry."

Sharpay let out a deep sigh, "It's okay."

"I guess the only option is to talk to him." Ryan added with a shrug.

"Yeah, I'll try. Thank Ry."

"No problem."

"_Some boys kiss me, some boys hug me  
I think they're O.K.  
If they don't give me proper credit  
I just walk away"_

Two brown eyes snapped open at the sound of the song, growing in volume, beside the bed as it did every weekday morning. Usually Sharpay would sit up and stretch, as a healthy awakening was obligatory to looking gorgeous in her opinion, then let her iPod play as she began her morning regimen. This morning however, the thought of seeing Zeke made her stomach ache. She rolled over and turned off the music, then flopped onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She knew that seeing him was inevitable, but she wasn't sure if that was comforting or frightening. Eventually she stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the shower, bringing the faucet midway between "warm" and "hot".

She stood in the shower letting the water hit her chest, it gave her tiny goose bumps to have the cool air and the hot water hit her at the same time. She held her hands up to the flow of water, then opened her mouth and let it fill with tiny droplets.

Two hours later Sharpay sauntered into the cafeteria over to the table where the group gathered before class began.

"Hey Shar." Gabriella smiled as the blonde approached the table, Ryan right beside her.

Zeke quickly looked up, his eyes locked his girlfriend. She could feel him watching her but she swallowed and ignored it. She joined into the conversation but he didn't look away. Finally, she looked over at him, but it was a glance that lasted only a split second. He had no idea what to do, but he knew that the longer they went without talking, the worse it would be. So he stood up and slowly took the few steps he needed to be beside her. She was still standing, and suddenly she felt a hand lightly touch hers. Her hand flinched at the spark his soft fingers left on her palm. The touch, although brief, sent a whole new sensation of nervousness though her body. She turned and saw him nod away from the group, motioning that they should leave.

They walked out of the cafeteria and down the hallway, completely in silence. When they reached a deserted spot by a science room Zeke stopped and put his hands into the pockets of his jeans. Looking down at the denim over his legs Sharpay noticed a small rip and she remembered the day he had torn those jeans climbing over a fence to win a race against Chad.

"Look Shar…" he reached out a hand, and then rubbed it against his leg. "I just felt like it wasn't a good idea."

"But why?" she begged him.

"I don't know, it's just that…well, it felt like the only reason to do it was because no one was home and we could."

"That's the only reason?" she asked angrily, her eyes narrowing, "That's the only reason to do it?!"

"Shar…"

Without letting him say anything more she spun around on her heel, did her best to hold back her tears and walked off quickly down the hall.

A/N: I hope you liked that :) I started it a few weeks ago but got stuck after the first two paragraphs, it took awhile but I'm happy with it. A Tabby Cat for whoever guesses which song Sharpay woke up to ;)

Reviews? Yes please.

Sparks ♥


	3. Perfect

"_Ding!_"

Sharpay whipped around in her bedroom as her eyes caught on the screen of her laptop. She was now standing completely frozen at her closet, hangers in hand as she stared at the little pop-up notice on her computer. After a few seconds it was gone, but the blonde remained where she was, her feet planted on the hard wood floor. She was tempted to rush over to her desk and see who had logged on, it was her duty as a social butterfly to always be in the know and constantly in contact with everyone, but if by some chance _he _had logged on she would be torn between ignoring him and talking to him, and neither option seemed to please her.

Determined to keep her cool, she turned back to her closet and placed a gold top on the rack. This was then followed by a pink and rhinestone-embellished dress and a purple mini-skirt. Once her arms were empty she ran a hand through her blonde waves and stood staring at her clothes collection, foot tapping on the floor. Then very stealthy she snuck a quick glance at her computer.

"_No,"_ she thought. _"I don't need to know if it's him. I'm doing fine without him anyways."_

She blew a strand of golden hair from her face. She crossed her arms. She shifted her weight to her other foot. She took out the entire contents of her closet. She rearranged them by color. She took them out again. She rearranged them by size. She put all the hangers facing the same way. She organized her shoes by style. Then once she had run out of ways to Martha Stewart her closet she looked back over at her laptop. She stared for a minute then _slowly_ walked over, pretending as if she had no interest in what it displayed. Placing her hand on the mouse pad she clicked on her buddy list, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. When she finally pried them open she scrolled down the list, and there right after "missperfect001" and right before "peterjames" was "nothinbutnetplz". And he was offline. Sharpay sighed and plopped down into her chair; she placed her heads in her hands and blinked back a couple protruding tears. Suddenly another "ding" made her jump up and hit her knee on the table leg. Rubbing her knee she looked up to see another little pop-up appear on screen. He was online, he was online and he had sent her a message.

**nuthinbutnetplz**: _hey, i think we need to talk_

"_Need to talk?! Yeah we need to talk! Talk about why you're such an asshole!"_

Sharpay groaned and bit her lip in frustration; she put her hands on the keyboard but then quickly took them off again. She sat there tapping her manicured fingers, wondering if she should reply, when he IMed her again.

**nuthinbutnetplz**: _even if u dont want to at least tell me that ur there._

"Damn it." Sharpay shook her head, now she had to reply. She sighed and began to type.

**pinkprincessshar:** _I'm here. So talk._

**nuthinbutnetplz:** _dont be like that_

**pinkprincessshar:** _I'm not being like anything._

**nuthinbutnetplz:** _fine, but u have to talk too_

**pinkprincessshar:** _I will. Can you come over?_

**nuthinbutnetplz:** _yeah, ill be there in 15 mins_

**pinkprincessshar**: _Okay._

**nuthinbutnetplz:**_ bye_

Sharpay took a deep breath and rolled her eyes as she tried to pretend the oncoming tears weren't there. The thought of talking to Zeke put a knot in her stomach, she was nervous, upset, embarrassed, scared and angry, all at once and as much as she missed him she had also imagined multiple ways to hurt him. That only lasted, of course, until she realized that she really did care about him and telling everyone that he wore Dora the Explorer underpants, even if it was a tiny little lie, was probably not the best idea.

To pass the excruciating wait Sharpay flipped open the November edition of _CosmoGirl!_ and tried to distract herself with "This Season's Yummiest Deserts" until the image of pumpkin rolls reminded her of Zeke's promise to bake her a cinnamon and raspberry pumpkin pie for Halloween. Suddenly overwhelmed, the magazine went flying across the room, its pages sprawling as it hit a well-dressed mannequin the corner.

The blonde became restless and walked downstairs to the kitchen, then into the library, then passed the office, then through the living room, and then into the dining room. Finally she ran out of rooms to storm through so with her stomach churning she walked back upstairs where she collapsed onto her bed, putting wrinkles on her soft velvet duvet.

Suddenly the elegant sound of the doorbell rang throughout the house and the rhythm of Sharpay's heart sped up ten times faster. She rushed to the hallway, the stopped in her tracks. Did she want to answer the door? Someone else could get it, but then they would know that he was here. She groaned and her feet patted down the spiral staircase.

"I've got it!" she yelled, hoping that no one would come.

Arriving at the door she stopped directly in front of it and rubbed her hands on her skirt. Knowing he was standing directly in front of her, just a door width away set her mind racing. Slowly she took the metal door knob in her hand and pulled the oak door open.

"Hi."

Zeke stood in front of her, his hands stuffed in his jeans pockets wearing a red Adidas t-shirt.

"Hi." She managed to reply, swallowing and moving to the side, motioning for him to enter the grand house. He stepped inside just as Cynthia Evans walked into the foyer.

"Hello Zeke."

"Hi Mrs. Evans. How are you?"

"Oh I'm just fine Zeke, how are you?"

"_Yes Zeke, how are you?"_ Sharpay inwardly spat, _"Feeling like crap? Well, good. Me too!"_

"I'm fine thank you Mrs. Evans."

"I'm so glad." She smiled at the boy then turned to her daughter. "Stay downstairs" she cautioned, giving Sharpay a warning look, "I'm off to my nail appointment, I'll be home in a couple of hours."

Sharpay wanted to laugh at the irony of it, but the humiliation of why her boyfriend was there in the first place kept her from making eye contact with either person next to her.

Then with her heels clicking on the expensive marble floor Cynthia made her way past the two teenagers and shut the large door behind her.

Zeke looked up at Sharpay and inhaled, running a hand through his short hair.

"We can talk in the gazebo." She offered. He nodded and the pair walked through the house and to the sliding glass doors in the kitchen.

Walking down the stone path to the pool area where a small, white gazebo sat beside a large and expensive grill, Sharpay stayed a few steps in front of Zeke and remained silent. When she reached the gazebo she sat down and watched him, waiting for him to speak.

Zeke looked up from his hands and took a deep breath, "Look Shar, I'm really sorry. This has nothing to do with how much I like you, it's just, well, I think we see this differently."

Sharpay looked into his eyes, but said nothing.

"Shar?"

"You made me feel really awful." She admitted, anger and sadness in her voice.

"I know, and I'm sorry." He leaned towards her and she could see it in his face. "So, so sorry."

Suddenly tears made their way from her perfectly made-up eyes down her soft cheeks. "I just," she wiped at her face, "I just don't understand why."

"Well, to me it's like we were going really fast. I don't want to do it because we feel like it, I want to do it because we're really ready and it's right." He bit his lip and watched a small tear fall down into her lap. "I haven't even told you that I love you yet."

She looked up suddenly, a look of shock displayed on her face as she blinked two perfect eyelashes.

"I love you Sharpay. I love you and I'm sorry about all this."

Not knowing how she would react, Zeke reached over and took her hand in his. Sharpay's chin quivered and whole new batch of tears came falling as she stood up and sat down on Zeke's lap, burying her face in the collar of his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I love you too."

Zeke grinned as Sharpay looked up and wiped away some falling tears.

"I'm so sorry Shar, I didn't mean for you-"

"No, it's okay. Thank you."

"Thank you? For what?"

"I just, well, at first I felt really rejected and embarrassed, but you were right. It should mean so much more than that and now that I think back on it, geez, it would not have been a good idea. I mean, we didn't talk about it all and we didn't think about protection!" She laughed, a smile finally appearing on her face and Zeke laughed with her.

"Yeah, I thought about that afterwards." He grinned, then wiped her damp cheeks. "So we're good?"

Nodding, Sharpay put her arms around his neck and leaned in to kiss him softly.

"We're perfect."

A/N: Hope you all liked :) And yes, the story is supposed to be this short. It's like a three part one-shot. Zekepay is really hard to write, as Katie would agree, but I did my best so I hope you could see it. I also hope you could see both Zeke and Sharpay's point of views. Sharpay, who was pretty and popular, saw sex more as a physical thing. Zeke however, who is more sensitive and sweet saw it as something more.

I love you all!

xoxoxo

Sparks

PS. I just realized that I never really explained how the title relates to the story, LOL. Well originally I planned Zeke out to say something about how it was a big decision, not something decided by playing a coin or rock, paper, scissors. But in the end I never wrote that line, so there's your explanation! Haha.


End file.
